What readers think of Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, plus links to write your own review.

Anna Quindlen’s Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, reflections on the first six decades of her life, is especially appealing to me as an older woman. Like the author, I raised a family while working outside our home. Other older women can relate to her joys and struggles to fulfill the traditional roles of a woman (wife, mother, and daughter) while advancing in a career. Written with optimism and gratitude for all that life offers, the author’s positive perspective on aging is evident when she writes “The older we get, the better we get at being ourselves.” I highly recommend this book.

Even though I have 10 years of age on Quinlan, I found the book timely and most personally reflective. As I read chapter after chapter, I underlined many passages and whispered to myself, "how true" and "perfectly said". Quinlan's analysis of the "Resting Age Rate" is so right on. It is not our real age, but the age we perceive ourselves to be that is important.
Many of us have the personal introspection so evident in this book, but only someone like Anna Quinlan can so creatively put it into such lovely prose. Its a thoughtful read for most women, particularly those who are "Older" and so much more comfortable in their own skin.

I loved Anna Quindlen’s latest book. From the first paragraph “First I was who I was. Then I didn’t know who I was. Then I invented someone and became her. Then I began to like what I’d invented. And finally I was what I was again.” I thought she was talking about me and as I read – sentence after sentence, word after word -- I was convinced she was writing my thoughts, my feelings. Her series of wise and wonderful essays depicts perfectly what it is like to travel, as a woman, through life. A delicious memoir that I will read over and over.

Beloved author Anna Quindlen has written another book reminding baby boomers what is truly important in life, i.e. people not things. It is written from a woman's point of view but certainly would appeal to both sexes over fifty years old. Each essay chronicles a passage of life told in Quindlen's warm, heartfelt manner. Subjects include raising children, friendships, working mothers and more. Reading Anna Quindlen is like having coffee with a girlfriend - it is definitely good for the soul.

In 10 years, Ms. Quinden, you can write "the rest of the story". I have been there, done that just as you have and totally enjoyed your re-counting of life's stages or rather the process of growing older that all of us women have or will pass through. I totally enjoyed your book and recommend it to all women 50 or older. Those who are younger will not be able to relate to it yet. So,my thanks to all that your generation has accomplished for women which will make life just that much easier for my daughters and grand-daughters.

If you like Ms. Quindlen's work, you won't be disappointed. If this is your first exposure to her work, you won't be disappointed. If you're a woman...of any age or, if you love a woman of any age two words: Read this. It's that simple because this book is that good.

I'm no fan of books on how to live our lives...but I loved this one! Though Quindlen is in the same age group as my own children, we connect well across the coffee cups. And that's how it felt reading her book - we were sitting with our coffee cups, sharing our views on women and aging, not always agreeing on how we handle the challenges, but sometimes enriching our own outlooks with new viewpoints (yes, I carried on my silent side of the conversation while reading). I'd never thought of the trick of looking at young beauties as new gifts, just out of the box, seeing myself I am an honored keepsake; never appreciated my faulty memory as enhancing the joy of re-reads. I could have signed my own name to her chapter on faith - though many would not agree. But that's the wonder of this book. Anna (I can call her that, she's my coffee buddy) never pushes her own philosophies on the listener, only shares them and invites us to accept, reject, or re-mold. She writes an entire chapter on the worth of girlfriends - wonder if she knows she's one of mine now, wonder if she heard my own whispering during our time together?

This insightful book of life's lessons, is really a series of essays in book form. That is not a bad thing; rather makes it easier to pick a chapter that may touch you on any given day. She writes with such understanding of our feelings in this late middle life, that this may be a generational book. It may be a little dry, but the thoughts and feelings that she puts on paper will amaze you.